Understanding In-App Advertising Fraud

Mobile apps are the growth driver of the digital realm. The diverse audience of mobile users, combined with precise targeting capabilities, makes in-app advertising a critical component to brands. However, the success of in-app advertising has attracted fraudsters looking to game the system.

Fraud in the mobile advertising ecosystem is something that everyone is aware of, but few want to talk about. But it is only through frank and transparent discussions about fraud that the industry can move forward in successfully combating the problem.

This whitepaper, Understanding In-App Advertising Fraud, is a guide to combating fraud in the programmatic ecosystem. Some of the insights in this whitepaper include:

• The Wide Range of Fraud: From app spoofing to auto-redirects, both advertisers and publishers are subject to fraud. Learn about the different types of fraud, including an in-depth look at invalid traffic.
• Solutions to Fraud: Fraud is getting increasingly sophisticated, but so are the protection measures. Smaato’s three-pronged approach helps protect partners.
• Ad Fraud Scheme Case Study: See how a complex ad fraud scheme involving shell companies, legitimate apps, and bots, was identified and stopped.
• A Look at App-ads.txt: The industry needs solutions that can scale. App-ads.txt, which prevents counterfeit inventory from being sold, could be one of these solutions.